Proclamation 6955—To Provide Duty-Free Treatment to Products of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and Qualifying Industrial Zones

1. Section 9(a) of the United States-Israel Free Trade Area Implementation Act of 1985, as amended (the "Act") (19 U.S.C. 2112 note), authorizes the President to proclaim elimination or modification of any existing duty under certain conditions as the President determines is necessary to exempt any article of the West Bank or Gaza Strip or a qualifying industrial zone from duty.

2. Section 9(c) of the Act authorizes the President to proclaim that articles of Israel may be treated as though they were articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes of the U.S.-Israel Free Trade Agreement (the "Agreement") even if shipped to the United States from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone, if the articles otherwise meet the requirements of the Agreement.

3. Section 9(d) of the Act authorizes the President to proclaim that the cost or value of materials produced in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be included in the cost or value of materials produced in Israel under section 1(c)(i) of Annex 3 of the Agreement, and the direct costs of processing operations performed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be included in the direct costs of processing operations performed in Israel under section 1(c)(ii) of Annex 3 of the Agreement.

4. Section 9(e) of the Act authorizes the President to specify areas that constitute qualifying industrial zones for purposes of the Act.

5. Pursuant to section 9(a) of the Act, I have determined that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTS) should be modified to provide duty-free entry to qualifying articles that are the product of the West Bank or Gaza Strip or a qualifying industrial zone and are entered in accordance with the provisions of section 9 of the Act.

6. I have decided that articles of Israel may be treated as though they were articles directly shipped from Israel for the purposes of the Agreement even if shipped to the United States from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone, if the articles otherwise meet the requirements of the Agreement.

7. I have decided that the cost or value of materials produced in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be included in the cost or value of materials produced in Israel under section 1(c)(i) of Annex 3 of the Agreement, and the direct costs of processing operations performed in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, or a qualifying industrial zone may be included in the direct costs of processing operations performed in Israel under section 1(c)(ii) of Annex 3 of the Agreement.

8. Section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483) authorizes the President to embody in the HTS the substance of the provisions of that Act, and of other acts affecting import treatment, and actions thereunder.

Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United States of America, acting under the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including but not limited to section 301 of title 3, United States Code, section 9 of the Act (19 U.S.C. 2112 note), and section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 U.S.C. 2483), do proclaim that:

(1) In order to provide the tariff treatment being accorded under the Act, the HTS is modified as set forth in the Annex to this proclamation.

(2) I delegate to the United States Trade Representative the powers granted to me in section 9(e) of the Act to specify through notice in the Federal Register areas constituting qualifying industrial zones.

(3) The modifications to the HTS made by the Annex shall be effective with respect to goods entered, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on and after the third day after the date of publication of this proclamation in the Federal Register.

(4) All provisions of previous proclamations and Executive orders that are inconsistent with the actions taken in this proclamation are superseded to the extent of such inconsistency.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-first.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON